Control Surface

Overview

The Control Surface is where the most important performance controls (sliders, knobs, buttons, etc) for each preset are found. There are some similarities in the layout of the Control Surface across the factory presets. There is almost always a Whammy Slider, there is almost always an Amplifier Volume Slider, and there is often a Palm Mute slider, but in general the factory presets have different Control Surface layouts.

Closely related to the Control Surface are the Expression Pad, Key Y, Key Step, and Key Num.

Performing the Control Surface

Move each control Control Surface, and see what effect it has on the sound, you can touch multiple controls and the playing surface at the same time

Editing the Control Surface

The Control Surface has a powerful editor that supports adding, modifying properties, moving and deleting controls. You can edit the control surface on factory presets. MIDI assignments, for both sending and receiving, is also supported. Multiple MIDI controllers can be associated with any given control.

Menu->Control Surface gets you to the Control Surface editor. A menu shortcut will do the same thing.

Example: deleting/adding controls

Create a new Preset

Enter Control Surface editor

Tap on the red X in the upper left of the Material slider

An empty slot appears with a green "+" sign

Tap on the "+" sign, and a picker view comes up. Tap on the "+" sign in the upper right corner, and you'll now see a list that says Performance, Guitar, Amp And Cab

Tap on Guitar, and you will see a list of all the guitar parameter categories. Tap on Strings, then Pick Position (percent)

Next you pick a control type, choose slider

Now you will see the Pick Position parameter listed along with a label field and some controls on the top.

Just go back for now, by hitting the Close button

Now you will see a Pick Position slider in the control surface. Move it around while playing notes on the keyboard at the same time. Notice the effect on the sound. What's happening is when the pick position is towards the top you are moving closer to the nut and when you move towards the bottom you are moving closer to the bridge. Get a guitar out and verify what you are hearing makes sense.

Example: Specifying MIDI mappings

Setup a physical MIDI controller and connect it to GeoShred. Please read the MIDI documentation if you don't already know how to do this. Make sure the MIDI controller has at least one continuous controller, like a Modulation Wheel.

Enter the Control Surface editor.

Tap on the Pick Position slider that we created above.

Now tap on the MIDI button, and you will see the MIDI Mapping Inspector. This is where you manage MIDI assignments for the control.

Notice that there is a MIDI controller already defined, for instance it might be Controller 3. MIDI Controllers are automatically assigned when a control is added in the interest of Record-Playback working seamlessly, but these automatic assignments are not important if you wish to make your own assignments.

Tap on the existing controller assignment and pick a new one, say Modulation Wheel, for the sake of argument. There is also a Learn button you can use to assign controllers from you device, without having to know what they are ahead of time. You can also use the Trace Window to find a controller name

Now move the Modulation Wheel (or whatever you picked), you should see the slider "fly" with the values coming from MIDI. Use the Trace Window to see the values coming in. Use the Parameter trace option in the Trace window to see this.

If you picked Modulation Wheel, then you might have noticed another controller move at the same time, as Modulation Wheel is often used by default in the factory presets, and the new preset template. If you don't want to see this, either remove Modulation Wheel from the other control, or pick another MIDI Controller